'To Detroit, With Love': Grosse Pointe mom crosses border every day to help the poor

To Detroit With Love, started by Erica Guido, is a grassroots organization that helps those in need in Detroit with donations primarily from Grosse Pointe residents where Guido lives. "It's about community and neighbors helping neighbors," says Guido.
Kimberly Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Buy Photo

Felicia Wilson, of Detroit gives Erica Guido a big hug after Guido stops by with donations for her family given to Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. Wilson was recently homeless and moved into a new home that Guido helped furnish through Guido's Facebook page.(Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

To the folks on the other side of Alter Road — a notorious dividing line that separates the haves from the have-nots — Grosse Pointe Woods mom Erica Guido is a miracle worker.

She makes things magically appear. Things like beds, dishes, couches, groceries — all of which wind up on the doorsteps of struggling Detroiters who live on the other side of Alter and need a leg up. The well-connected suburban mom gets the items donated by generous Grosse Pointers who meet her on Facebook, and then delivers them herself.

Six days a week, she does this for free.

The 39-year-old Guido loads up her husband's pickup with life's necessities every morning, breaks out of the comfort zone of her affluent community and ventures into some of Detroit's most run-down areas to help her less-privileged neighbors. She delivers washers, dryers, dining sets, changing tables for newborns.

Guido has no warehouse, however. She only has a pickup, a front porch and Facebook — the vehicle that's made her philanthropic mission possible.

Last September, Guido created a private Facebook group seeking donations to help one homeless woman. Through that woman, she met many other struggling folks and wanted to help them, too. To her dismay, she discovered that a lot of people sleep on the floor in Detroit. And she realized quickly that the poor need things delivered as they have no transportation.

In 12 weeks, Guido has helped 85 families and furnished at least two dozen homes for people who started out with nothing. To date, her Facebook group has 1,355 members and is still growing. It's a simple operation. She posts wishlists of items she needs on Facebook. And the members respond, dropping the items off on her porch or having her pick them up.

“I want to show how easy it is to love a stranger,” said Guido, a fifth-generation Detroiter who grew up in the city and moved to the Pointes three years ago..

"You see the privilege here and you see the disparity across Alter, and I really wanted to build a bridge," said Guido, adding she really wants Detroiters to know: "You're not alone. We want to help you share our resources, our things, our opportunities."

And she has a message for her community as well.

“Leave the bubble of Grosse Pointe," she said. "Cross Alter. It’s not that scary.”

Buy Photo

Timothy Tarver, 5, of Detroit holds the door open for Erica Guido, 39, of Grosse Pointe Woods who stops by with donations for his family given to Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love, on, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018.(Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press)

'Santa Claus' of Detroit

Felicia Wilson holds nothing back when Guido stops by.

"I love this woman!" Wilson said one recent February morning, hugging and kissing Guido as she entered her modest home on Yorkshire Street.

It's her first ever home, Wilson explained with pride. And it means the world to her and her three sons, whom Guido has showered with gifts in addition to furnishing the entire house.

Wilson, 31, was homeless up until this winter. She lived at a Salvation Army center and, at times, out of her car while her sons stayed with her parents. After years of struggling, she finally qualified for Section 8 government housing and landed a nice little bungalow on Detroit's east side.

Then along came Guido, whom she met through a friend of a friend. The Good Samaritan from Grosse Pointe Woods surveyed the place, figured out what she needed, and filled it up. A king bed for her 14-year-old son. A plush, roll-arm slip-cover sofa. Side chairs, an end table and a Tiffany lamp. Wilson's eyes especially light up when she looks at the wrought-iron dining room set that Guido brought by recently.

"It's the nicest home I've ever lived in," said Wilson, who is happy that she can finally have people over for a birthday party or friends for dinner.

According to Guido, she found a Grosse Pointe family that decided to adopt the Wilsons and help them out with necessities while the mom gets on her feet. Wilson recently landed a new job inspecting auto parts at a factory in Macomb County.

Wilson said Guido has been her saving grace, stopping by regularly with everything from clothing to food to dishes. The two keep in touch by phone calls and texts.

Sometimes, things show up without even asking. For example, Guido recently noticed that Wilson was walking her boys to school 13.5 blocks each way wearing Adidas sneakers in the snow. She posted on her Facebook page that a needy mom needs boots.

The next day, Guido had four pairs of boots dropped off on her porch. Wilson had warm feet the next day.

"She's a friend for life," Wilson said, noting Guido goes a step further than most donors who help the needy. She stays in their lives.

Felicia Wilson of Detroit gives Erica Guido a big hug after Guido stops by with donations for her family given. Wilson was recently homeless and moved into a new home that Guido helped furnish through Guido's Facebook page.
Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Erica Guido has an easy smile as she stops by with donations for a Detroit family given to Guido through her grassroots organization. Guido created the Facebook page to "generously share our friendship, resources, household items, services and time to our struggling neighbors" in Detroit.
Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Christopher Robinson, 14, of Detroit goes through a box of donations dropped off by Erica Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love. Robinson is sitting on a bed that was given to him days before.
Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Andrew Jones of Detroit gives Erica Guido of Grosse Pointe Woods a hug after she stops by with donations given to Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018.
Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Felicia Wilson of Detroit gives Quantay Mendoza, a big hug for his help in delivering donations for her family given to Erica Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love. Wilson was recently homeless and moved into a new home that Guido helped furnish through Guido's Facebook page.
Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Erica Guido delivers donations to Detroit families while her children are in school through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love, photographed on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018.
Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press

Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries:

"She's a great person, a one of a kind," said Andrew Jones, 51, another of Guido's beneficiaries who gets visits from her frequently.

Jones lives in a small house on Radnor Street, also on Detroit's east side. He has a host of health issues and has been living on disability since falling off a loader truck while working as a construction worker. He also spent years working as a short order cook for seafood restaurateur Joe Muer.

Guido has furnished Jones' entire home as well, except for a bed and some wooden elephant figurines he inherited from an aunt. There's a plush microfiber sofa in the living room. A coffee table. Tiffany lamp. She stops by every two to three days to make sure he's OK and has what he needs. She even made him homemade brownies recently.

"When she pulls up, it's like Santa Claus to these people," said Eric Haley, 31, one of the first Detroiters Guido helped when she launched her mission.

Haley, who is recovering from cancer surgery, was so overwhelmed by the help he received that he now helps Guido deliver her items to pay it forward. He drives the pickup while Guido and his partner, Quantay Mendoza, 22, do the heavy lifting.

Haley said the mission is about helping people and showing the world that Detroit is a place full of love, not hate.

"It's not about the drugs. It's not about the crime," Haley said. "It's about the love."

Buy Photo

Christopher Robinson, 14, of Detroit goes through a box of donations dropped off by Erica Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. Robinson is sitting on a bed that was given to him days before. (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press)

'The fed ex of the needy'

While “To Detroit, With Love” is largely a one-woman operation, Guido notes that she couldn’t do it without the support of her husband, Joseph Guido: a software engineer at General Motors who plays Mister Mom to their two sons so that his wife can pursue her philanthropic dream.

“When he gets home from work, he cleans and cooks and bathes the kids,” she said. “He’s a super hero.”

Joseph Guido admits the domestic chores get hard sometimes. But his wife's joy and the overall mission are worth it.

"I always told her — and I try to keep to it — find what you love and do it," he said. "And she found what she loves and she's doing it."

Judging by the volume of good that pile up on her porch, others love it as well.

"It exploded beyond anything I ever imagined. I'd come home and our porch would be just wall to wall," said Joseph Guido, who has helped make deliveries as well and is moved by what he has seen.

"It's transformative," the husband said. " It's something that cities, not just Detroit, are lacking — that direct connection and giving directly to the people."

Guido is now focused on growing her project and turning it into a nonprofit. But like those she helps, she needs help, too — especially a cargo van as she needs a bigger vehicle to haul the bulky donations.

"I see in my future a warehouse, a fleet of trucks and us being the Fed Ex of the needy," Guido says.

Sounds good to Joseph Guido, who jokes: "I want my truck back."

Buy Photo

Erica Guido, 39, of Grosse Pointe Woods, right, stops by with donations for Felicia Wilson's family given to Guido through her grassroots organization, To Detroit With Love, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. (Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press)

'I knew what it was like to struggle'

Guido is no stranger to economic hardship.

She grew up on Detroit's east side in a little bungalow on Marne Street, off Moross and I-94. Her dad was a Chrysler factory worker and left the family when she was 5. Guido would grow up watching her single mom struggle to raise three kids on her own, working various secretarial jobs trying to make ends meet.

She attended East Detroit High School, got her GED in 1996 and took courses at Macomb Community College before meeting her husband at a martial arts studio. They married in 2005.

During her childhood, Guido regularly wore hand-me-downs and grew accustomed to seeing old furniture in the house. At one point in her early childhood, her family had lawn furniture in their home, though she never felt disadvantaged. Her mom always worked hard to make the holidays and birthdays special, she recalled. And she taught her to help others.

"I knew what it was like to struggle," said Guido, who grew up hearing: "Always help when you can."

When Guido was 13, she remembers seeing a homeless man on the side of the highway. She and her friend got so upset they hijacked a shopping cart from then-Farmer Jacks and asked their moms to fill it up with food from home. The moms obliged. And Guido and her friend wheeled the shopping cart to the man on the highway.

It was the beginning of what was to come.

Tresa Baldas can be reached at tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas

If you're interested in helping To Detroit With Love, please contact: Todetroitwithlove@gmail.com